Our July
by Smiley612
Summary: Almost a decade after Patricia and Eddie broke their engagement, he finds her again in the town of Port Jefferson, NY. She wants nothing to do with him, but he's determined to be in her life. Eddie has hydrophobia in a town surrounded by water and Patricia pours drinks down his shirt any chance she gets; maybe Eddie WAS the "excitement" she had left him for. / Peddie. Multi.
1. When Patricia Returns to Her Old Rituals

**1A/N: For a while, I trashed this story because I didn't like how it was going; now, however, I quite liked how I outlined it, so it's getting published before the HoA fandom dies out completely. Come on, guys, even though it was officially cancelled, don't give up on it just yet. I've legitimately SOBBED over this show, so there's no going back now.**

**The original title of this story was "Port Jefferson", because that's where it takes place; it's an actual town in Long Island, so if you want to see what it looks like, either go to Google Images or go to Google Maps and type in "Port Jefferson" and go to Street View. Just like the train is the star of The Polar Express or the ship is the star of Titanic, the town is the star of this story with its co-stars being Patricia and Eddie. I do hope you enjoy this story, because I wrote the original outline back in July.**

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**/o~~~o/**

First, you think the worst is a broken heart  
What's gonna kill you is the second part  
And the third, is when your world splits down the middle  
And fourth, you're gonna think that you fixed yourself  
Fifth, you see them out with someone else  
And the sixth is when you admit that you may have messed up a little

There ain't no help, it's every man for himself.

**/o~~~o/**

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**CHAPTER ONE**  
_When Patricia Returns to Her Old Rituals_

_._

Patricia Williamson's eyes opened to the sound of her phone ringing.

"Heat of the Moment" by Asia blasted from her speakers as she fumbled around her nightstand with her fingers, searching for her cell phone; eventually, almost as the music was about to halt, Patricia gripped her phone and held it up to her ear.

"Hello?" she answered groggily into the phone. The electric clock beside her read 6:03 AM; twenty-seven minutes before she was due to work.

"Trixie, get your ass to work right now!" Her co-worker, Jenna, screamed into her ear. "Boss wants us here early! If you're late, who knows what he'd do? Get to the station before he slaughters you in your sleep!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" she told Jenna, quickly pressing buttons on her touchscreen phone. When she hung up the phone, the date displayed on her screen was November 19th, 2024. Patricia sat up, ripped the blankets off of her cold body, and ran to her dresser to collect her work clothes, slipped them on over her bra, slid her iPhone into her pocket and was out the door in less than five minutes.

Twenty-two minutes to go. She sighed before she crossed the busy street to make her way over to Dunkin' Donuts; as usual, when she opened the door, Patricia found Jenna Dunlap sitting at a table with a regular coffee resting on the table in front of her.

"Well, well, well," Patricia greeted, her American accent, acquired through eleven years of living in the United States, dripping through her tone. "Look who I found! I thought you said Boss was going to slaughter us in our sleep if we showed up late."

"He will," Jenna confirmed, the corners of her small lips creeping toward her eyes. "Just you wait. Tom will rip our heads off if we show up at 6:31. So hurry up, order a coffee before our deaths."

"Oh, I will," Patricia confirmed, stepping up the counter to order the same thing as Jenna. When the DD barista stepped aside to make her coffee, seventeen-year-old Jenna walked up next to her. She was like a tween compared to twenty-nine year old Patricia; but neither of them truly cared, because they got along so well.

There was one other person in their trio: Abigail, who was closer to Patricia in age, being 25. Patricia was the oldest, she being born in 1995, Abigail born in 1999, and Jenna being the youngest, born in 2007. When her coffee finally came, Patricia stepped out of the Dunkin' Donuts shop, only to find the clear sky had now turned dark and dreary; drizzle was steadily falling on the black concrete.

"Ugh," Patricia complained, and Jenna chuckled. "Oh, silly, naïve Patricia," she said, placing her hand on her shoulder, "You should know by now that Long Island has bipolar weather."

"Well, you would've thought," Patricia muttered, paying close attention to her voice; she'd lived in the United States for almost a dozen years, and she still hadn't gotten used to her voice change. For someone who used to live in Britain, it was a big change; she had watched her British accent turn into an American one.

She glanced longingly at the ferry station where Jenna, Abigail, and she worked; wishing that she could have just transported herself there instead of walking in the rain. Patricia grabbed Jenna's held tightly as she ran along the sidewalk and jaywalked across the street.

After sceeching and yelling at cars skidding past, eventually they arrived at the station and shook the water out of their hair, laughing. "Well, I've learned my lesson," Patricia muttered as she sat down in her seat.

"And what would that be?" Jenna wondered, sitting down in the chair next to Patricia's. They both had the same job: customer service. Patricia thought, if she was still in touch with her old Anubis friends, they would tease her about it to no lengths.

Patricia Williamson was still the snarky, rude, and bitchy girl she was in Anubis House, but she had changed in the last eleven years. She was more mature than she was when she was sixteen; she knew how to handle a situation better, knew how not to get jealous when her boyfriend was found with messages on his ChumChatter account that were actually made by the teacher to break them up.

She was much kinder than she was when she was sixteen, also. Jenna probably wouldn't have been friends with her if she was still the way she was back then. Patricia might not have been hired here if she wasn't nicer. Joy even commented that she changed miles from 2012.

Joy and Mara were the only two people she still talked to now. Patricia had, sadly, lost touch with everyone else. Amber was busy with fashion school, so they never talked; Willow and Alfie were together somewhere in England, getting married and having children; KT was in touch with Patricia for a while after college, but eventually they had drifted apart too; Jerome was married to Joy, so of course Patricia heard from him sometimes, but it wasn't as if they still planned pranks together like they did when they were fifteen; Mara married Fabian, but he was always off on business trips so they never talked; and Nina had stayed in America her third year, so Patricia hadn't heard a peep out of her since 'Ask Eddie'.

She was okay with just having Mara, Joy, sometimes Jerome, and rarely Fabian. She wasn't even that good friends with any of the others, after all...except maybe with Alfie, Amber, and Nina. Sometimes Patricia missed the days of Sibuna when they were threatened by a man with murderous flies or when they were almost cut to shreds by pendulums or even the time when they were investigating the gatehouse. It had been 11 years since Anubis House, but she wished for nothing more than to see it again.

Sometimes Patricia even wondered where Victor went, after he had left Anubis House for the last time after they graduated.

One or two hours passed. Jenna would talk to her now and then, but Patricia was focusing on the ferry where she worked: The Port Jefferson ferry. Patricia lived in Long Island; she loved her place of residence, but she hated it, too. Long Island was the only island in the world with such bipolar weather; one day in the summer it could be a cool 50 degrees (Fahrenheit; it took Patricia a while to get used to the new metric system), and then the next day the island could be hit with a heat wave that lasted for a week.

Long Island was also surrounded by water on both sides, unlike what people seem to think. They were connected to the city by a bridge, not land. That was why it was called Long_ Island_, after all.

Patricia stared out at the docks, surrounded by boats and stores, the water crashing against the wooden boardwalk, the ferry out on the ocean, heading for Connecticut. The ferry wouldn't be back for two hours or so, so the office would be uber quiet until then. She couldn't help wondering what it would be like if the ferry was the RMS Titanic, sailing out to its doom...

"Patricia?" Jenna voiced, interrupting Patricia from her thoughts, once Jenna had placed the phone on its holder when she finished a call.

"Yeah, Jenna?" Patricia asked over the constant sound of fingers hitting the keyboard.

"Have you seen Abby since yesterday?"

"No, not since yesterday..." she mused, trying to think of something else to distract her. Jenna, however, was more than occupied in finding out what happened to her friend. "Could you call her?" Jenna asked Patricia, and while she had other, more important, things to do, Abby was Jenna's best friend. Obliging, Patricia pulled out her cell phone and typed in Abby's number.

She waited for a few moments, but it rang and rang and eventually it just went to voicemail. She glanced at Jenna for a moment; there was something in her expression that Patricia couldn't read; the first second, she was concerned, but the next she was holding back a laugh that Jenna probably thought Patricia couldn't see. Jenna was always hard to read, but Patricia, after being in Sibuna for three years, learned to do things she never thought possible.

Rolling her eyes, Patricia turned to her phone and scrolled through her contacts, seeing Joy and Mara first on the list, two people which were still in England, always asked if they could visit Patricia and see the city; New York City was about an hour from Port Jeff. The city was a wonderful place, but for Patricia, it stored bad memories as well, ones she never had to think about until today.

She clicked the 'off' button on her phone, watching the screen slowly turn to black. The continuous typing of the computers wanted to make her scream; she was used to listening to the barking of her dog that she had to give back to the shelter, almost nine years ago, and the clash and clatter of pans as neither of them knew how to cook. She missed the smell of McDonalds; sure, there were McDonalds here in Port Jefferson, but it wasn't the same as the McDonalds she'd known and visited each day in California, where she lived almost a decade ago.

One thing she knew almost a decade ago was a person. A person that had hurt her, had wrecked her, just like Miley had sang eleven years ago in 2013. Just at a simple glance, all of the heartbreak followed. She saw herself crying as she shut the door to their house, sliding the ring off her finger and tossing it down the street, letting herself scream her pain out. And the same exact person walked into the ferry waiting room and sat down in one of the chairs, playing with his phone.

Patricia walked over to the sink, poured water into a plastic cup; she wished the holder could have been larger, but she grinned as she approached Eddie Miller and poured the glass over his flattened blond hair.

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**some extra info: i know that i ended on a cliffhanger, and this chapter was just oc's with patricia and no eddie, but i promise that by the next chapter, there'll be more 'peddie' scenes, per say. i'm estimating this story'll be around 55 chapters, more or less. i have exactly 33 chapters outlined so far.**

**i don't have a schedule for this story yet, so you should definitely follow if you want to know when the next update is, since i'm also trying to concentrate on lost & found and don't be afraid. **

**i'd love to hear what you guys think of this story, the oc's (they won't play a huge part i promise), and why you think patty and eddie broke their engagement. it's not just a simple reason, there's a whole story behind it and one of these days you'll find out why. the rest of the anubis residents will come into play later in the story; that i can promise. i do hope you enjoyed the first chapter! (ps: i've been listening to the titanic suite nonstop and i watched marley & me for the first time two days ago, someone hold me because i'm drowning in my ocean of tears.)**

**days to write, seconds to review. tell me what you think? :)**

**-lia**


	2. When Patricia Declines an Invitation

**disclaimer since i haven't done it in like five months: i don't own house of anubis or anything associated with it.**

**so tim hopewell, the director of our show, tweeted something interesting last week. he was _suggesting_ that there's going to be an anubis season 4, but i'm not getting my hopes up. plus, someone tweeted klariza a question involving s4, and she said that s3 was her last. s3 was tasie's last, too. the only ORIGINAL anubis female left is jade. bobby's gone, nathalia's gone, ana's gone, and now tasie and klariza are gone too? it isn't house of anubis anymore.**

**anyhow, i present to you chapter two of Our July! it didn't take me long to write, since i'm not making the chapters as long as i make lost & found or don't be afraid, but a lot of work was still put into it. i hope everyone's having a nice winter break so far; i'm planning to pull an all-nighter and play my sims agents all the way through tonight; what are YOUR plans?**

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**/o~~~o/**

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His reaction came quick, and just as Patricia wanted it to be. He flailed, he screamed, and he pushed himself out of his seat, screeching. Patricia stood back and laughed, a few drops of water dripping out of the edge of the cup in her hand.

She laughed silently, crossing her arms, glaring at the person in front of her. Her emotions were doing a gymnastics routine; she wanted to scream at Eddie as he seemed to be completely shocked with the glass of water in his hair, but she also wanted to run behind the counter and hide, then cry her eyes out because all of her pain from the past that had long been locked away, had suddenly come back to haunt her.

However, she stood her ground with her arms crossed, the small plastic cup of water in her right hand, glaring at Eddie Miller.

She didn't care how he had gotten here. She didn't care that how his hair was styled made him look like a completely different person. All she cared about was that the person in front of her had caused her endless pain, continuous nights of crying herself to sleep, putting a gun to her head because no one believed her when she said that she wasn't the reason for their four-week fight.

He deserved that cup of water in his hair. He deserved even worse than that, but Patricia wasn't in the mood to bring any evil to him now. If she ever saw him again after this, then...

She quickly wiped a tear falling down her face away, so as not to come off as weak in front of him, even when he was still drying himself by shaking his arms and head. She couldn't let the pain and betrayal that had occurred to her nine years ago get in the way of her strong-willed, _I-don't-take-anyone's-bullshit_ façade. And, sure enough, with one last shake of his head, Eddie Miller turned his head and his hazel eyes locked with Patricia's blue ones.

Just seeing those eyes sent a whirl of emotions inside her. They were the same hazel eyes that she first saw when she met him, spewing sarcastic comments every which way, only to win in their argument. They were the same eyes that she had looked into when her soul was stolen by Robert Frobisher-Smythe, Eddie demanding that some of Patricia's feelings and memories must still be in here somewhere — and they were. Eddie's confident and kind eyes had just reminded her of it.

And now, here they were, the hazel eyes that had destroyed her and wrecked her beyond comprehension, shaking his furry head to rid himself of all the water.

"Eddie," she spat bitterly, forcing the word out of her mouth. Just with those two syllables, she felt like crying; had Eddie really hurt her that much? And why did it still hurt, even nine years later?

At first, Eddie, instead of saying something, looked down. He ran his fingers through his hair, his head aimed to the tiled floor of the ferry reception room. The only sound was the whir of the vending machine beside them; Jenna, apparently, had sat silently in her seat once Patricia had poured water over the head of a potential customer. She stood, shaking with anticipation of what was to happen.

Then, he looked up once again. "Patricia," he breathed. There was that amount of bitterness and resentment that still resided in his voice; it was like the tone of his voice had never changed since Patricia left him all the way back in 2015, as that tone had been the last she'd heard his voice in nine years.

It was weird, almost; he looked almost the same as he did in 2015; he had, obviously, aged like wine. They were the same age (Actually, Patricia was nine months older than Eddie was, as she was born in February 1995 and Eddie was born in November of 1995, but that didn't matter), so as a 28-year-old, he looked pretty good for his age. Patricia didn't care, however good he looked, that his birthday was in two days; his birthday was on November 21st, and the date on the calender was November 19th. He'd turn 29 in 48 hours.

She was shaking now. Anger, resentment, fear, and grief had overcome her all at once, making her want to scream all of her emotions out of her. She _hated_ feeling this way; emotions had made her weak. If she didn't let her emotions get the better of her while she was searching for information on Joy's disappearance back in 2010, then Sibuna wouldn't have been made, as she wouldn't have sent Nina Martin up to the attic in resentment of the fact that _an American_ had taken her best friend's place.

She'd been a roller coaster of emotions lately, just like she had been since September 22nd. The simple fact that Eddie had smiled, for a millisecond before he'd spoken her name, made her want to grab the landline the Ferry had, rip it out of the wall, and throw it into the Long Island Sound.

"GET OUT!" was the first logical thing to come out of her mouth since she saw him. After he'd said her name, she'd thought of all the times he'd screamed it in the months they did nothing but fight. Seeing his face had made her want to punch a wall, but she knew that breaking her hand wouldn't help anything. Eddie, standing very still, his arms limp at his sides, watched as Patricia pointed to the green wooden door, her arm outstretched so much it almost _hurt_ her. "GET OUT! NOW!"

"Patricia," Eddie breathed again, holding his hands up. Was he surrendering, or trying to get her to stop talking for a moment? "Breathe for a moment. I'm—"

"I DON'T CARE!" she'd screamed out, almost giving in to the temptation to cover her ears, so she wouldn't have to hear his voice. It was the first time she'd heard it in nine years; it was still overly distinguishable in a crowd. His hands were still huge, compared to her small fingers and palm. His hair, which had been rid of the spike _twelve_ years ago, was flattened because of the cup of water Patricia had poured on it.

There was a part in her that wanted to stand here and just inspect everything about him. There was a _normal_ side to her that wanted to just sit in the seat next to him, apologize for pouring the water in his hair, and chat him up, asking about all the things that had happened to him in the decade they'd been separated. Wasn't that people normally did, when they saw someone they hadn't seen in a while?

"JUST _GET OUT_!" Were the words that came out of her mouth, even though she had a crapload of other words to tell him, some more colorful than others. It was just like late 2011/early 2012, when she'd finally admitted to herself that she liked Eddie and wanted to tell him, but by the time it got to her mouth, it came out as an insult.

Patricia wanted to think calmly about this, but every time she was close to apologizing for yelling and getting him wet, all the pain she went through in 2015 reminded her that she didn't want to poke Edison Miller with a thirty-nine foot pole. (And to think that she was about to become Patricia Miller was truly horrifying.)

Eddie exhaled loudly, removing eye contact from Patricia. She stood her ground, one arm behind her back, and the other one outstretched, pointing to the door, where she wanted Eddie to leave through and to never have to see him again. It was a few seconds later when Eddie finally met her gaze once more, and said, "No."

"NO?!" she boomed, turning around to look at her co-worker Jenna incredulously. All she did was stare blankly in shock at the two of them. "What do you mean, _no_?!"

"I mean, I'm not leaving," he explained calmly; Patricia wondered how he wasn't screaming like she was, since she knew herself she'd caused Eddie a great deal of pain, just like he'd caused her. Water dripped off of Eddie's sleeves and pant legs, but he didn't seem to notice or care. "Patricia, I need to stay and talk to you for a little while. Please stop screaming, I know it must be hard, I'm just going—"

"NO, I'M NOT—" Patricia started to scream, but caught herself before she lost her voice completely. Without looking at him and causing herself to be in any more pain than she was already in, she sucked in a deep breath of air and collected her thoughts, running through her head at a million miles per hour. She had so many questions, so many _Why's_ and _When's_ and _How's_, but as she willed herself not to cry again. She was stronger than tears. "Fine," she breathed, forcing herself to smile as she looked at his face. "Fine. Fine. Perfectly fine."

Eddie's face contorted in confusion as Patricia began to laugh; she tilted her head back as she laughed, but she laughed with such intensity that that the happiness soon turned to sadness. She felt the tears coming, and for once in her life, she finally understood the saying "lump in your throat", because her lump was so big she almost couldn't speak without her voice coming out wet and weak.

She swallowed down the lump and looked Eddie straight in his hazel eyes. "Fine," she repeated herself, smiling maniacally, ignoring Eddie's pleading eyes and confused expression. "If you won't leave, I will."

And she stormed out of the ferry waiting room and into the town without another word.

It seemed that in the few minutes Jenna and Patricia were in the communication center, it had stopped raining. She knew that Long Island had bipolar weather (They had a snowstorm in October once), but she was thankful there was no rain falling anymore. It would make it harder to see, as the ocean was right by the ferry waiting room and sea mist would travel up to land.

"PATRICIA!" exclaimed a familiar voice, but a distant voice, too. It was big and buff and very distinguishable in a crowd. She knew it very well back in 2013, but now, she almost couldn't recognize it.

Almost.

"PATRICIA!" The voice, who, evidently, belonged to Edison Miller, screamed. Patricia stopped her walk abruptly, almost out of the parking lot. In front of her, she saw the gloomy silhouette of the town of Port Jefferson: the toy store to the left, the Village Way restaurant to the right, and in front of her stood shops like Strabucks, Dunkin Donuts, Ralph's Ices, CVS, and a pizzeria that Patricia, Jenna, and Abigail ate at often. "WAIT UP! SLOW DOWN! Oh, Sweet Baby Jesus I need to get in shape."

Once again, Patricia had to force herself to turn around and see her ex-fiancé's face for herself. If she was going to tell him off, if she was going to tell him to go back to wherever he came from, she'd have to be strong and face the man herself. Sweet, kind, caring Eddie who had somehow, whether intentionally or unintentionally, found his ex-fiancée as well, but Patricia thought, after everything she'd put him through, he'd never want to see her face again.

"_What_ do you want?" She couldn't will herself to scream right now; she was too tired from the screaming she'd given only moments before, and she didn't feel like wasting her breath on someone that had hurt her as much as the person in front of her had.

"Patricia," he'd breathed again, leaning his hands on his knees in an attempt to catch his breath. In the past nine years, Patricia had learned to be_ a little_ more patient; but still, as he collected his breath back, she tapped her foot on the concrete as the cars passed by, speeding as their tires sloshed through the puddles made by the rain that had fallen earlier that day. "Oh, good God. Okay, Patricia, look. I know you must be shocked—"

"And _angry_," she contributed stubbornly. Eddie pointed to her, saying she'd gotten one right.

"But...just...listen to me," he breathed the last three words as he finally collected and locked in his breath. Eddie stood up straight, cracking his back. "This may come as a shock to you, and I know it's quick. I can't imagine what you were feeling when you saw me in there. But please, please just come back inside, I just want to talk—"

Then she laughed again, in complete disbelief of the fact that Eddie was asking her these things. "Don't you know what you're asking?" she questioned, regretting looking him straight in the eyes. His eyes were too familiar to her, too close to home. When Eddie shook his head, Patricia sighed in exasperation and told him, "We both agreed, back in 2015, that we'd never speak to each other again. It would be better for both of us if we were separated. We fought, for, like, months, and when you left the house, that was the happiest I had been since...like...forever."

Eddie laughed. If she was feeling right, Patricia would have punched him square in the nose, but she didn't feel like exerting energy on him. Besides, she deserved to be laughed at; she was at a loss for words, as she was expected to come up with them on the spot. Patricia didn't dare look at him again, didn't dare to put herself in any more pain than she was already in.

"Patricia," Eddie, once again, spoke her name. She hated what she felt whenever he said her name; it was a whir of nostalgia, and just once, for the first time in nine years, she wanted to be called by her nickname. _Definitely_ not by Eddie himself (She'd throw him in the ocean if that was case), but maybe Joy? Or Mara? She'd do anything to feel the way she felt in 2011, 2012, and 2013, back when she first met Eddie to the time when she asked him to dance at the graduation after-party.

Her thoughts were cut short by Eddie continuing with, "Why don't you come to McDonalds with me? We can just talk it out if you'd just listen to me for a moment—"

"No," she'd protested calmly, willing herself not to scream at him again.

"No?" Eddie repeated her question, seeming legitimately shocked.

"No," she'd finalized, smiling to herself the slightest bit. She was standing up for herself and not making herself uncomfortable by doing something she didn't want to do. "No, I'm not going to McDonalds with you. Why would I want to put myself in all that pain?"

"It's been nine years," he'd commented, moving his hands along with his words. His huge palms were open now, facing the sky. "Come _on_, Patricia. Just_ listen_ to me for a moment. It's almost been a _decade_ since we broke our engagement, you _have_ to be over it by now."

Patricia looked down at the concrete again, playing with her fingers, just like she did every time she was nervous. "Maybe I am," she told him the truth, "but it's not like I ever imagined you'd come back. And look! Here you are. I'm not going to McDonalds with you because _you put me in endless pain_ back in 2015. I cried myself to sleep every single night. You broke my heart, and there I was, thinking that you were the person who I'd spend the rest of my life with. Guess I was wrong. And I'm not putting myself in any more pain than I had been in in 2015, so sorry — Wait, I'm not sorry — if I have to stay behind."

"But—"

And without a word, she stormed off into the town, leaving Eddie Miller behind. She was sure, for a moment, that he was going to follow, but Patricia didn't hear any sloshing of boots and honking of cars that suggested Eddie was following. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but she didn't look back at the ferry waiting room (even when she was on the job), glaring ahead the entire way home.

* * *

**/o~~~o/**

* * *

As soon as she'd gotten to her apartment, she'd slammed the door closed and locked it, just in case Eddie was following her with binoculars or something. She'd shut the blinds, closed the windows, and made extra sure no one was going to come in and put her in more pain.

Patricia didn't cry. She might have cried in the beginning, when she first saw him, but she wasn't about to cry now. If she was feeling any emotion, it was anger; how dare he come and intrude on Patricia's life like that, especially when she hadn't seen him in almost ten years?

The calender on the wall, still reading November 19th, 2024 didn't change, but the clock on the nightstand did. Compared to the last 6:03 AM, it now read 12:48 PM. She had survived six hours in the ferry before Eddie had come and ruined everything.

Patricia pulled at her auburn hair, pacing back and forth in her small apartment. The TV was off (She'd been a bit surprised when she'd learned that Americans don't call them telly's, but instead TV's — like how lazy can you be? — but she'd soon gotten used to American slang. Patricia supposed that having three American friends in Anubis helped her the slightest bit), and she wished it was on, just so there'd be another sound to hear. The sink wasn't running, the table wasn't set, the bed wasn't made. Her apartment didn't feel _right_ as she paced back and forth.

She'd whipped out her cell phone and scrolled through her contacts, breathing heavily. She'd deleted Eddie's name a long, long time ago, so Patricia didn't experience any more discomfort than she already did while passing the _E_'s. Scrolling through, she'd passed _Alfie Lewis_, _Amber Millington_, and_Fabian Rutter_, all people she'd lost contact with, even though she still had their numbers. As soon as she landed on the J's, passed _Jerome Clarke_, she finally landed on _Joy Mercer_ and pressed the green call button.

Joy answered on the third ring.

"Hey, Patricia!" she'd greeted, and Patricia grinned happily. Joy was one of the two people she'd kept in touch with for the past nine years; Mara was the other one, but Patricia didn't want to speak to the Valedictorian right now. She wouldn't understand; and she wasn't saying Joy would understand, either, it was just that she'd much rather speak to her _best_ friend than a _close_ friend. "What's up?"

"Eddie," she growled through her teeth, opening the freezer and taking out a jug of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

"Aw, Patricia, we've been over this!" Joy complained softly, as Patricia tore off the top and stabbed a spoon into the frozen ice cream. "You haven't spoken about him, in, like, five months!"

"He's back," Patricia said, angrier than ever. She stuffed a spoonful of the mint chocolate chip ice cream into her mouth, swallowing it whole as Joy tried to comprehend what she was saying.

"What do you mean, he's back?" Joy asked quietly. Patricia heard papers shuffling on the other end of the line.

"I mean what I said," she responded sarcastically, leaning against the white refrigerator while continually stuffing more and more of the green ice cream into her mouth. "Eddie Miller is back. He's back in my fuckin' life. Just when I thought I had gotten rid of him forever, he comes waltzing right back in. The little bastard."

"You're saying that Eddie's there with you?" Joy contributed, and once Patricia confirmed her suspicion, Joy whistled, evidently impressed. "How did he find you? You didn't, like, call him out of the blue and tell him you were in Port Jeff, right?"

"Yes, because I just _completely_ want to see the man who broke my heart nine years ago," Patricia commented, but Joy told her there was no need for sarcasm. However, sarcasm was her only approach here; she felt like she was back in her 11th grade year, beating Eddie out in sarcasm comments before she'd kissed him in her room, to finally give him that reaction he'd spent months searching for while ordering heavy metal bands instead of classical ones. "I don't even know why he's here."

"Back in 2015," Joy began, "didn't Eddie and you both find different people? I know you went to a man named Parker, but what about Eddie?"

Patricia shuddered just thinking about it. She knew the woman who Eddie had gone to, the woman who had practically ruined Patricia's life. And what sucks more, is that is was someone else, someone who had caused Patricia more inner jealousy than KT Rush had in her first few days at Creepy Towers. Patricia knew _she'd_ broken up with Eddie and that it wasn't mutual at all, but she couldn't help feeling the way she did whenever she saw Eddie hanging out with KT instead of Fabian, or solving mysteries with KT instead of spending quality father-son bonding time with Sweetie.

"I don't know," Patricia told her best friend, trying to divert the conversation topic. "He practically begged me to spend time with him. He's such a loser." Joy laughed weakly, and the rustling of papers continued. Patricia, stuffing more green ice cream into her mouth, thought for a moment until her eyes grew as big as tennis balls. "What if he never leaves?!" she asked incredulously. "What if he wants me to, like, kiss him before he leaves for good?!"

"Well, Patricia," and there came Joy's motherly voice again, "You lost your virginity to him when you were seventeen, during that summer when you spent two weeks in America with him and his mom. I don't think giving him a peck on the cheek will be that big a deal, if that's all he wants, and if you really want to see him go. Besides, you kissed me for a good twenty seconds on a dare back when we were fourteen."_  
_

"Yeah, I did," Patricia laughed along with Joy. She remembered telling Eddie, back in 2014, that he was the first boy she'd ever kissed, but Joy was the first _girl_ she'd ever kissed. At the time, in 2009 when they were fourteen, Joy and Patricia were best friends. The kiss they shared didn't exactly initiate "sparks", but it didn't feel totally wrong, either. Besides, Patricia had always been kind of interested in Alfie Lewis.

"Look, Patricia, the past is in the past," Joy tried to explain to her, but Patricia brushed her off. She knew she couldn't let stupid men like Edison Miller get to her, especially when she hadn't seen him in nine years. She hardly ever thought of him now, since she had made a living in Port Jefferson, New York, working in customer service (Sure, laugh about it now, but Patricia had become much more friendlier over the past decade. Sort of.)

She had a feeling, though, that things were about to change. And she wasn't about to put herself in any more pain than she'd already been through. She'd do anything to get rid of Eddie if it meant her being happy, because if there was one thing she hadn't experienced in the month and a half Patricia and Eddie were fighting back in 2015, it was happiness.

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**/o~~~o/**

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**yeah that ending was suckish. i know. the chapters will get better i promise ohmygod.**

**how's everyone's winter break going? i hope everyone enjoys what the calender has done for them this year, because i know how hard school can be on some people. i hope everyone's okay though, and i hope everyone has a nice christmas, since i probably won't be updating on that day, so merry christmas to all and to all a good night :)**

**days to write, seconds to review. i do hope you enjoyed!**

**-lia**


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